Sleep-Texting... Common Among New Generation

Published October 6th, 2013

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Experts say as technology changes, the way our brains behave during sleep is changing. We've all heard of sleep walking and sleep talking but what about sleep-texting? Experts say sleep-texting is spreading among young adults.

It may be a flirtatious text intended for your crush or an angry message directed towards your boss-- Regardless, you may very well end up love-less or job less. Sleep-texting can be socially dangerous as it's a type of sleeping disorder that involves unnatural behavior. The UF expert I talked to today says sleep-texting happens when you come out of your first segment of slow wave sleep and is more common than you think.

The next time your It may be in your sleep. But will you answer it? UF Student Jonathan Lacs said, "I think it's impossible to be honest but if you're telling me it exists then I guess you have to watch out." There's a good chance you will.

Dr. Mary Wagner a sleep specialist with UF Health says more young people are replying to their texts during sleep. "People who can text quickly this is going to be a natural for them and it's also a form of communication so it's much more common now for people to text then even call on the phone and so I think that's the group that is definitely vulnerable."

Bryan Smith a student at UF says he's caught himself sleep-texting. "I was like sleeping and then I was like sending a text because I really had to send a message to someone else and the text was totally of subject and off topic and then I kind of regret sending it because it was just really random. It was a lot of letters of nothing," Smith said.

But why does it happen? Dr. Wagner said, "A component of your brain in charge of some sort of activity related to wakefulness isn't fully suppressed during sleep."

Israel Taylor another student at UF says she finds herself doing it often. "And it's weird because a lot of times I wake up and I don't remember texting things," Taylor said. However sleep texting can be a nightmare she says. "One time I woke up and I was like mid text and it was like, I love... And then I was like oh my gosh! Thank God I didn't send that!"

Dr. Wagner says that in order to prevent sleep texting you can try and keep your phone away from your bed side, turn it off or put a lock code on it.

Ole Nelson a Gainesville resident part of another generation said, "It's a natural outgrowth of technology... We have sleep walking, sleep talking and now we've got sleep texting."

Dr. Wagner explains that if your sleep schedule is not regular or you're not getting enough sleep you can be more prone to having this happen. But the most worrisome thing about this disorder though is sending out a text you'll regret.